Jammu, Dec 8: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday announced special incentives for the outstanding sports personnel.
 “Government will award Rs 5 lakh to any sports person of the state who wins gold medal at the international level while gold medal winner at the national level will get Rs 3 lakh, silver medalist Rs 2 lakh and bronze medalist Rs 1 lakh,” he said addressing the felicitation function hosted by J&K Judo Association in honour of Ms Nippu Jamwal, Asian Games Gold Medalist, here on Tuesday evening. Nippu will also receive Rs 5 lakh under the incentive announced by the Chief Minister.
 Calling for apolitical sports organizations, he said the prime concern of the sport bodies should be to encourage youth at all levels and in all sports to excel and bring laurels to the state. “We have great talent available in various categories of the sports and the need of hour is to nurture this talent in a proper manner and provide required infrastructure for all sports”, he said adding that government would provide all help and financial support in this regard.
 Omar said that while chairing recently held District Development Board Meetings, he observed that the development of sports infrastructure was the common demand from all MLAs and MLCs. “This indicates the degree of interests our youth posses in sports”, he added. He said besides cricket, football, hockey, other sports have to be equally focused to ensure equitable development of all sports and the talent available.
 Speaking on the occasion, the Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports, R S Chib said Youth Welfare and Sports department was concentrating on the development and growth of sports talent in the state and efforts are a foot to generate more and more interests of youth in different sports, by providing infrastructure facilities at all levels.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Dec 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 8 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Dec 2009 00:00:00 IST